


Waiting

by Lassarina



Category: Final Fantasy IX
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-03
Updated: 2006-06-03
Packaged: 2017-10-03 10:51:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/pseuds/Lassarina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waiting for her Queen to return is the hardest part of Beatrix's job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting

I've done many difficult things in my life. I've done things that taxed me physically, emotionally, mentally. But nothing I had done before was nearly as hard as this. I watched my queen and my...what would you call him? I guess most people would apply the word "lover," but I'm not sure that's right...it doesn't matter. I watched Garnet til Alexandros and Adelbert Steiner charge into that monstrosity above the Iifa Tree and I had no idea if they were coming back.

Logic said no.

I didn't much care about logic, but I didn't have _time_ to worry about it. I handpicked the crew of the _Red Rose,_ and we were fighting for our lives against dozens, maybe hundreds of those damned Silver Dragons. Too many of them, not enough of me. My soldiers kept me supplied with potions and ethers, but even I can only do so much.

Fighting a hundred knights single-handedly was far easier than fighting three Silver Dragons at the same time.

I don't know how long we fought them, I honestly don't. Regent Cid says I stood on the blood-soaked deck of my airship for twelve hours. I don't remember. I only remember casting magic, striking with Save the Queen, being wounded and my soldiers healing me. I ordered them to stand back, protect themselves and give me potions. My soldiers are good, but I am better, and they were no match for those hell-beasts.

And here I am, standing in the audience chamber of Alexandria Castle guarding an empty throne. I promised Garnet I would guard her castle and keep her kingdom safe for her, but I am a warrior, not an administrator. The bureaucrats check in with me twice a day, and I stand here from dawn to midnight, waiting. It has been a week, and still I stand guard over nothing. Yesterday the minister of defense suggested that perhaps we ought to take steps to consider a new monarch. He's lucky his head is still attached, because I don't remember drawing my weapon, but I do remember holding the point of Save the Queen against his throat, and only the quick intervention of the master of the exchequer dragging him out of the throne room saved him.

The door opens slowly and they walk in, Steiner supporting our queen. They are both hurt and her face is tear-streaked, but they are alive.

I salute her, and she smiles, and then I don't know how I got from the dais to them but we're all three clinging together in a knot, and Garnet and I are crying and Steiner is making that suspicious sniffling sound that he insists is absolutely not related to tears.

"We did it," Garnet says, and I hug her tight, because it doesn't matter if they succeeded or not; she is here and he is here, and we are together again, and that is all that counts.


End file.
